Kings and Queens
by Starlight4u
Summary: A rather unexpected marriage proposal leaves Quistis feeling more alone than ever. Leave it to Seifer Almasy to come in at the wrong time. SPOILERS
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Well, I must say first of all that my other fanfic, Eyes on Me, is on hiatus. I have the whole storyline in my head but I can't bring myself to write it and I'm rather bored with it at the time. On another note, I've always wanted to write a story that many people found rather interesting and kept everyone talking about it for some time after completion. I don't think I've yet to do that. So I'm taking this story seriously and putting everything I have into it. Please, comment accordingly. No flames! If you don't like the story you can either a)stop reading or b)give me constructive criticism. There's no reason to bite my head off.

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**Kings and Queens **

Chapter One

Again

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_ I looked from my window at a boy my age as he stood and watched a black car drive away. He didn't seem upset, but then again, I could only see the back of his head. In his left hand was a modest looking suitcase; the other held a duffle bag overflowing with what could only be clothes and an assortment of toys that only a young boy would find appealing. He was rather small in his jeans that were a size larger than they should be and an oversized shirt bearing the emblem of some beer company. Appropriate, I thought sarcastically. _

_ He turned his head back and caught my stare. The only thing that caught my eye before I turned away was his emerald-green eyes. Even from upstairs inside the house, I could tell they were pained and jaded, no pun intended. Though he bore a smirk that I would come to know all too well, his eyes were dimmed from whatever Hyne put him through. My heart was racing for some unknown reason and I dared not look out the window again for fear he was still watching for me. _

_ I eventually gathered the courage to take a peek out the window again only to find the boy was gone. Instead I heard her voice echo through the house and up the stairs to where I was in my room which I shared with another resident of the household. "Everyone, come down here! I want you to meet someone who will be staying with us for a while!" _

_ I sighed and extended my legs out a bit after being pulled up to my chest for far too long. Oh well, guess I better go greet our new guest.

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_

The harsh buzzing of an alarm clock woke her from her slumber. She slammed her hand over the top of the clock, silencing it immediately with the snooze button. Peeling one eyelid open, she read the bright red numbers. It was only five-fifty in the morning. Quistis stared lazily at the numbers and moaned in what could only be half-sadness, half-annoyance. Five-fifty was about the time she would wake up to get ready to teach her first class of the day if she were still an instructor for Balamb Garden. Of course, that was back a few months ago. Now Quistis was just a SeeD waiting for another mission to come along so that she might have _something_ to do. Oh sure, there were the occasional riots and rebellions among the several resistance members in various countries around the globe, but those really weren't anything to get worked up over, especially since the long battle against Ultimecia.

Quistis rolled on her back and rested an arm over her forehead, her eyes half-closed as she tried to focus on the ceiling in the dark. She found herself reflecting on the journey to defeat the sorceress. It seemed so long ago when in reality it couldn't have been more than a few months before. In a way, it felt like some nightmare Quistis just awoke from yet the after-effects of said nightmare were incredibly real. The battle scars, the memories, the fame, and the couples that resulted from the escapade weren't going to disappear with the blink of one's eyes.

The alarm buzzed again, startling the young blonde out of her trance-like state. She cursed under her breath and instead of pressing snooze again, she switched the alarm to off, quieting the offensive noise for good. By now the clock read six o'clock and the sun had started to peak over the horizon, shading the sky a very dim shade of violet and pink. No longer feeling an overwhelming sense of sleepiness, Quistis stretched one last time in her bed and threw the covers from her body. The cold air stunned her for a minute but she quickly recovered and stumbled over to her dresser drawer and slowly pulled out a pair of black gym pants and a white tank top. As she got dressed, Quistis, still in a semi state of slumber, moved to her bathroom and grabbed a toothbrush from a cup by the sink and, putting toothpaste on the bristles, proceeded to brushing her teeth. Finally, she grabbed a pair of headphones attached to a small mp3 player and slipped her feet into her running shoes which were placed neatly by the door of her dorm room. Ever since the end of Ultimecia, Quistis started to wake up to nightmares every morning. She read on the internet somewhere that jogging was one way to relieve stress which Quistis chalked the nightmares up to. When the alarm clock went off, Quistis would jog a few laps around Balamb to hopefully clear her mind.

Placing the headphones snuggly on her ears and making sure she grabbed her card key for her room, the SeeD quickly took off for her morning jog. She turned to a random rock song by some obscure band that Zell had so generously placed on her mp3 player and fell into a groove, her eyes unmoving from the ground and the scenery around her a blur. Very few students had classes so early in the morning. Those that were around the Garden at six in the morning were either coming from the Training Center with an array of cuts and bruises or staggering to their dorms with a friend or two, too drunk to know where they were after a long night of partying in nearby Dollet. Quistis ignored the students and concentrated on keeping her rhythm as to not tire easily. After about seven songs played and Quistis passed the hallway to the dorm rooms three times, she slowed to a walk to calm her heart as it beat rapidly due to the exercise. She winced as a cramp ached in her lower side and tried to soothe it by placing a hand on the pain. Oh well, it was better than mental agony any day.

"Quisty! Quisty, wait up!!" a high pitched voice called out. Pulling her headphones down to rest around her neck, Quistis turned to see her friend, Selphie Tilmitt, run after her. Always the cheerful one, Selphie was wearing her usual bright yellow dress with her shoulder-length brown hair flipped out ever so stylishly. Quistis smiled at her and when Selphie finally caught up to her, both continued walking. "Quisty! I feel like I haven't seen you in forever! How have you been? Is there anything interesting going on in your life? What about your love life? Is that good?" she asked in what could only be described as one long run-on sentence.

Quistis laughed. "Selphie, we saw each other just last week. Nothing's really changed," replied the taller woman, motioning to a nearby water fountain so that she could get a drink. Selphie huffed and crossed her arms as Quistis bent down to quench her thirst.

"Quisty, a week can be quite a long time. The fact we even went that long without so much as a phone call concerns me."

Quistis looked up from the fountain, confused. "Why does that concern you? Many people go weeks without talking. It's not a big deal, Selph."

"But we're not just anyone. We spent the months after Ultimecia inseparable. You, Rinoa, and I went out to dinner every other night and sometimes we'd get all dressed up and go to the bar in Dollet to talk over drinks. Or what about shopping? We haven't been shopping in Hyne knows how long!" Selphie listed. Quistis stood up and wiped her mouth with the tips of her fingers. She shook her head and smiled as both walked toward the dormitory hallway, moving at a much quicker pace now that the cramp in Quistis's side had subsided.

"Selphie, you've been with Irvine. Rinoa's been with Squall, which we both know is a blessing that Squall is that happy to be with someone. I've been enjoying my alone time as well. We're still close friends; you don't need to worry about that. Oh, and for the record, we were never 'inseparable.' We took just as many days off from each other then as we do now."

"I guess you're right. I just miss the stuff we did together and I miss you!" concluded Selphie, her arms raised above her as she exclaimed the last part of her sentence. Quistis giggled a bit and reached into her pants pocket for her card key. Wiping sweat from her brow, Quistis approached her door and swiped the card through the scanner, a green light brightening and the sound of a 'click' as the door unlocked for Quistis to enter. She held the door open for the smaller teen, to which the teen obliged and both entered the dorm room.

"Hey Selph, I have to take a shower so feel free to make yourself at home. There's some food in the mini refrigerator under my desk and the remote for the TV is on my nightstand," she instructed warmly, grabbing a pair of jeans and a salmon pink t-shirt from her closet and taking them with her into the bathroom. She closed the bathroom door and turned the water on so the water was mildly hot when she finally stepped into the shower. Quistis removed her jogging clothes and placed them neatly in a pile by the toilet to be picked up before she left the bathroom. Her skin was sticky with sweat and she could hardly wait to scrub the feeling of filth from her body so she could feel clean again.

The mirrors had begun to fog up with steam and Quistis promptly stepped into the shower. Her conversation with Selphie echoed in her head as she lathered her hair with shampoo. **_Selphie, you've been with Irvine. Rinoa's been with Squall... What about your love life? Is that good... _**Quistis didn't know why it bothered her so much that everyone in their so-called 'group' had significant others. Even Zell had managed to settle down with that one girl from the library, though she never _did_ manage to catch her name. Ok, so she knew that it did bother her a little that she was still single while everyone gushed about how great love was. It made her sick. She thought by now at least that she would have adjusted to seeing her friends so happy with each other while she grew accustomed to the thought of herself dying alone with her fifty cats around her bedside. Yet nothing could ease that hollow feeling she felt when she was invited to join one couple or another on a date. The dreaded…third wheel. Shuddering at the thought, Quistis ran a loofah full of soap suds over her skin to wash the dirt away. She shook her head and chose to think of other happy thoughts. **_Like having a boyfriend… _**

"Hyne dammit!!" she hissed at the fleeting thought before finally settling on some random thought of her teaching days. Eventually her thoughts drifted back to the previous conversation and Quistis found herself thinking of one certain couple that got underneath her skin the most. Right before her Instructor's license was revoked, Quistis found herself quite attracted to one student she taught in particular. Squall Leonheart always sat in the back of the classroom, never saying much unless he was called on to answer a question. Quistis admired his battle skills and couldn't deny the fact that Squall was indeed good looking. Despite how much Quistis sucked up to the man, Squall never returned her affections and remained just as cold as ever. Yet during their journey to defeat the sorceress, Squall had fallen in love with the girl who hired them originally to help liberate Timber. Rinoa Heartilly managed to achieve the impossible and that was making Squall open up to her and only her. Eventually they fell in love and kissed and soon enough everyone in Balamb knew about the happy couple. Quistis put on a front around them, constantly telling the pair how cute they looked together; too bad it just hid how much it hurt to see Squall happy with someone that wasn't herself.

Almost ten minutes upon stepping into the shower, the girl finally turned the water off and pulled the shower curtain aside. She grabbed a towel off the hook above the toilet and quickly dried herself off to avoid the cold one experiences after a hot shower. With her body completely dried off and the towel wrapped around and piled on her head to further dry her hair, Quistis pulled her jeans and shirt on but not before putting on her undergarments. Feeling refreshed, she grabbed her jogging clothes and opened the bathroom door, stepping out into her room and throwing the clothes in a basket full of other dirty clothes to be taken to the washer and drier a few doors down. When she turned around to talk to her friend, she found Selphie dancing obliviously to some obscene rap song playing from her television. When she heard Quistis clear her throat, Selphie froze and whirled around, grinning sheepishly.

"Sorry, I was bored and there was nothing on TV," was Selphie's only excuse. Quistis rolled her eyes and changed the channel and Selphie sat on Quistis's bed, pulling her legs up Indian-style.

"So since you asked me how I was doing, I guess I'll ask how you're doing?" the blonde inquired, removing her hair from the towel and running her hand through her damp, blonde locks.

The cheerful girl smiled at the question. "Oh, I'm good. I'm planning another festival to take place sometime in December so that's taking up some of my time, but not much."

"Oh? And what's this festival for? We just had one to celebrate our defeat of the sorceress. And December's kind of far away. Come to think of it, it's almost three months away."

"C'mon Quisty! What do you think it's for?"

Quistis shrugged. "I have no idea. Um, you and Irvine are getting married," she replied sarcastically as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail and then pinning it up in a clip. She turned her back to Selphie as she rummaged through her drawer to find her makeup bag which only contained some eye shadow, mascara, blush, eyeliner and some tubes of lip gloss.

Selphie jumped off the bed excitedly and jumped from one foot to the other. "Close! Qusity, don't play dumb. It's for Rinoa and Squall's engagement, duh!" The bag of makeup that Quistis had just found fell from her hands and landed on the ground, the contents spilling all over the floor.

**_Engaged? _**

**_

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_**

Author's Note: Oh, just for future reference, I'm using titles of songs that would go well with the chapter if they were played along with it or whatever. This one is "Again" by Lenny Kravitz. I'll try to remember to put the artist at the end of the chapter but if I don't, just remind me.


	2. Chapter 2

Kings and Queens

Chapter Two

The Sharpest Lives

_Matron's hand rested lightly on my shoulder as we waited for everyone to come to the door where we stood. I was here because my mother couldn't deal with me anymore and she felt I was a burden on her since the day I was born. My father died after one of his alcoholic binges one night, leaving my mother widowed at the young age of twenty-two and with a child she never wanted in the first place. I don't believe a day went by that she didn't remind me how much she hated me and wanted me dead. I wasn't too upset when she told me she was leaving town without me and for me I had five minutes to 'pack my shit and get in the damn car.' When I got out of the car in front of the orphanage, my mother didn't even wish me well or told me she loved me. She sped off and left me standing there with my bags by my side. Screw her._

_Five other kids came from different areas of the house. A girl with large green eyes and wavy brown hair ran from the kitchen with a taller boy in tow, his long, brown hair flying behind him as he tried to keep up with the bouncy girl. A blonde boy charged toward Matron and me but stumbled over his feet and fell on his face right in front of me. I snorted as he struggled to stand up again. From a room to my left appeared another boy who looked younger than me with brown hair falling over his eyes sloppily as he held hands with a much older girl who looked composed and serene. All the kids appeared very excited to see me for Hyne knows what reason. Matron smiled at me and introduced me to everyone. _

_"Seifer, this is Selphie, Irvine, Zell, Squall, Ellone, and…" she fell silent and looked from child to child, concerned. "Where's Quistis?"_

_"Right here, Matron!" a girl's voice cried from the top of the stairs. My eyes followed up the steps to a cute blonde girl looking down at me with concern. Her eyes were magnified by her eyeglasses that were much too large for her face. Her hair cascaded down her back and she seemed oblivious to her beauty. She couldn't be older than seven. "Who's that?"_

_"Oh, Quistis, I'd like you to meet Seifer. He'll be living with us for a while. He's your age, you know," she added, hoping it would provide us with some sort of connection. I sneered at Quistis subtly, knowing she'd be a perfect target for any pranks I was ready to pull during my stay here. So naive, so unknowing. _

_I was so ready for this.

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_

He stepped into his jeans clumsily and tried to keep his balance in the process. He zipped up the zipper and buttoned the top button before looking over his shoulder at the girl in bed. She stared at him blankly, the covers pulled up to her neck as she struggled to find the right words to say to make him stay at least a little longer. It was two-fourty seven in the morning and Seifer bent over and grabbed his shirt that was tossed carelessly to the floor. "You know, I didn't even catch your name," the girl thought aloud, her words slurred together in a drunken state of confusion.

"Yeah, my name… look let's just leave this for what it was and go on our way. You're great in bed but I don't think we have much else in common," Seifer muttered under his breath, grabbing his trenchcoat from the chair by the bed and hastily putting his shoes on to avoid the awkward 'call-you-in-the-morning' question.

"Well, you have my phone number so will you call me later?" she asked. The blonde man didn't even answer her as he opened the door and left the apartment of the girl he never even got a good look at before he decided it'd be a great idea to sleep with her. He figured he was being a gentleman by walking her back to her apartment after a long night at the bar. It was only now that he realized he was too drunk to deny her advances as they neared her building, then her floor, then her room, and finally to her bed. The whole night-slash-morning was a complete blur, starting with the first shot of vodka and ending now with Seifer walking down the apartment stairwell and out into the chilly morning air to walk back to his own apartment.

It wasn't anything new to him. He usually started his night with a cigarette or two, followed by downing shots of random hard liquors, then moved on to large pitchers of beers, and usually finished up with more liquor. The goal? To get as drunk as quickly as possible. It usually resulted in Seifer going home with a different girl once or twice a week. He never looked for anything long term with them. Besides, they were very drunk most of the time to even comprehend what was going on and he was out the door before they sobered up. He knew he was an asshole for taking advantage of them but, to be perfectly honest, he could have cared less.

It was the same routine everyday since the end of his Romantic Dream. Seifer wanted nothing more than to be a knight and protect someone. Too bad that someone, Ultimecia, had manipulated him just enough to help in slaying hundreds of innocent lives in a failed attempt at Time Compression to eventually rule the world in all stages of time. The ex-knight had let so many people down in following his dream and was very much ashamed to return to Balamb or anywhere near the garden.

Seifer came up on his apartment building and opened the main doors to the lobby, stumbling a bit before he reached the elevator. When the doors glided open, he stepped in and concentrated hard on the buttons, trying to figure out which floor was his. He chuckled at his own stupidity and placed a large hand on the button numbered three, pressing buttons four and five in the process. The silence in the elevator was almost annoying to Seifer as his vision was still clouded with the many glasses of whiskey he'd downed earlier that evening. The elevator was old and took a rather long time to even get to the next floor. Seifer wondered if he'd be able to make it in to his living room at least before passing out again. He didn't want to deal with the landlord telling him again that sleeping in the halls of the building were against the complex's rules. Yet another thing he could have cared less about.

Floor three finally appeared in front of the man as the doors parted for him to exit the elevator. He took his keys out of his pocket and opened the apartment door that was his own down the hall a bit and closed the door behind him, sighing in relief. Sure, it would never be as nice as his dorm was at Balamb and it sure as hell wasn't as nice as it would have been if Seifer had made SeeD. It would have to do, though, with Seifer's income of working odd jobs around the town doing mainly construction. Not many people wanted to hire him after learning he was behind the whole catastrophe of the sorceress.

Seifer found himself falling fast onto his couch and not caring he was still in his clothes that reeked of alcohol, smoke, and sex. Nonetheless, he still had enough energy to reach over onto the end table and grab the remote for the television. He flipped through channels and was quite annoyed at the lack of good shows on at now three twenty-two in the morning. Hyne, he couldn't wait to sober up.

Infomercials. Education channel. Some war movie produced back in the seventies. Seifer was ready to put the remote down when a news station caused him to stop channel-surfing and sit up quite slowly. On the screen was a video of Squall and Rinoa, Rinoa crying happily as Squall showed a rare smile while down on one knee, holding a small box with a beautiful ring placed carefully inside. "Yes, the rumors are true! Commander Squall Leonhart, famous for saving the world from almost certain destruction from the sorceress, has indeed proposed to girlfriend, Rinoa Heartilly. Our best goes to them. Although the date has yet to be decided, we will report it to you as soon as we know. And now . . ."

Seifer never felt so dizzy in his life. The video was now on repeat in his head as he felt the need to run to the bathroom and throw his head over the toilet, a mixture of excess alcohol and jealousy and anger causing him to throw up. Of course, Squall was _always_ blessed with good luck. Sure, he was so over Rinoa it wasn't even funny; but why was Squall always the one with the string of fortune thrown his way? He got everything and left Seifer with nothing more than a run down apartment and broken dreams.

Finally, when Seifer felt he was safe to pull away from the toilet, he reached for his toothbrush and furiously brushed his teeth to rid his mouth of the foul taste of vomit. Although it was something he had grown accustomed to, he nonetheless still hated it. Flushing the toilet, Seifer washed his mouth out and returned to the living room. Another breaking news bulletin featuring the newly engaged pair flashed across the screen and Seifer, once again, ran to the bathroom and dropped to the toilet.

Fuck.

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Author's Note: Well, after what was a horrible beginning of the year became much better. I'm sorry for the shortness in length and the long time between chapters. I'm not going to spill out the excuses but I'm sure you all understand. Anyway, please review and tell me what's going on and how you feel as the story continues. My stories don't mean a thing unless someone out there is willing to read them.

The song is "The Sharpest Lives" by My Chemical Romance.


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